1. Field of The Invention
The present invention is directed to a method and an apparatus for manufacturing superconducting components. The present invention is, in particular, suitable for superconducting components which includes superconducting elements consisting of complex superconducting oxides.
2. Related Background Art
Laser ablation is one of the most suitable deposition process for obtaining excellent quality of thin films on substrates. Laser ablation process has advantages, such as excellent stoichiometric stability of deposited films, when the process is used for the films of the superconducting oxide compounds. Laser ablation also has another advantage that it does not require any electromagnetic fields, which fields may possibly affect the quality of the deposited films. Therefore, laser ablation is expected to be employed as deposition process for near-term devices as it is the most promising process.
A number of studies have been made in the deposition of the superconducting films via the laser ablation process. For example, Japanese Patent No.53818/04 (Kokoku Hei 04-53818) discloses a processing method for a complex oxide superconducting film which includes a Cu.sub.X O.sub.Y group. Other studies concerning laser ablation have been also made by, for example, Song et. al. (Appl. Phys. Lett. 63(24), pp.3370-3372, December 1993), Foltyn et. al. (Appl. Phys. Lett. 59(11), pp.1374-1376, September 1991), Linzen et. al. (Second International Conference on Macroscopic Quantum Phenomena, Smolenice Castle, Czechoslovakia, Aug.31-Sep. 4, 1992), Krebs et. al. (J. Appl. Phys. 69(4), pp.2405-2409, Feburary 1991), and J. A. Greer and H. J. VanHook (SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1377, November 1990).
The manufacturing process of the superconducting devices and elements, such as superconducting cables, superconducting electrodes and superconducting microwave devices, typically includes two process steps; a step of depositing superconducting material onto a substrate via laser ablation, and a step of fabricating deposited superconducting material to form devices or elements by fabrication process such as etching. Dry etching and wet etching are the typical ones used in the etching fabricating step.
Most of the etching processes, however, are carried out under the presence of photoresist and etchant, which are very active in reacting with the complex oxide superconducting compounds such as Y-Ba-Cu-O(YBCO). Therefore, it is desirable that the etching process is avoided for processing superconducting devices. Further, it is not permitted for deposited superconducting films to be exposed to the air during processing, since most of the superconducting oxides can instantly react with H.sub.2 O in the air.
It is, thus, desirable to provide a manufacturing method for superconducting devices and elements, which does not include an etching process.
It is also desirable to provide a method for manufacturing superconducting devices and elements, all the steps of which do not include exposing the superconducting surfaces to the air.